Archival
Collections
Civil Rights Movement
and Race Relations in Alabama
The Collections
Alabama.
Twenty-Second Judicial Circuit Court
State of Alabama
vs. Collie Leroy Wilkins, Jr. Trial Transcript, 1965
(AR 1038)
Wilkins was one of three
men accused in the murder of civil rights worker Viola
Liuzzo, who had participated in the Selma to Montgomery
March. The trial ended in a hung jury, with 10 of the
12 jurors voting to convict. Wilkins was acquitted at a
second trial, but he and fellow Klansman Eugene Thomas
were later convicted
in federal court of
civil rights violations and sentenced to 10 years in
prison.
Size: 1 box
Birmingham World
Office Files,
1939-1988
(AR 1102)
This collection contains
an extensive body of correspondence, clippings,
publications, photographs and other material collected
and created by the staff of the Birmingham World, the
city’s longest running African American
newspaper. Topics include civil rights organizations
and their activities, sports, music, education, and
politics.
Size: 62 boxes
Carpenter,
Charles Colcock Jones
Papers,
1920-1969
(AR 241)
Born in Augusta,
Georgia, Charles Colcock Jones Carpenter was an
Episcopal priest and served bishop of the Episcopal
Diocese of Alabama from 1938 to 1968. He died on June
29, 1969. The papers contain the files compiled by the
bishop’s office and are divided into four series:
parish files, office files, financial files and
supplemental files transferred from the diocesan
offices at a later time. In addition to correspondence,
the files include such things as bulletins, pamphlets,
news clippings, photographs, sermons and building
plans. The parish files contain much routine
correspondence between the bishop and the parish priest
and between the bishop and parishioners concerning such
matters as the formation of a new mission, property
purchases, new building, divorce and remarriage, loss
of a priest, and the calling of a new one. The office
files include correspondence with various diocesan
officials, information about organizations within the
church, various discern facilities and other
miscellaneous matters. There is a significant amount of
material relating to the Civil Rights Movement in
Alabama and the nation. The financial files contain
material relating to various bequests and trust funds
set up for the diocese.
Size: 22 boxes
Carter, Asa Earl
“Ace”
Publications,
1956 and undated
(AR 1265)
Asa Earl Carter was a
segregationist leader, politician, speech-writer, and
novelist. He was active in the Citizens’ Council
movement and the American States Rights Association and
founded the North Alabama White Citizens Council. This
collection contains three issues (March, April, and
September-October 1956) of Carter's white supremacist
newspaper The Southerner and one LP record entitled
Essays of Asa Carter, Album 1. The record (purchased at
a flea market by a member of the Archives staff) is the
first in a series of twenty. On the record Carter reads
four of his essays, "Communism: Trojan
Horse," "Savage Showcase,"
Reconstruction Times," and "Jesse
James."
Size: 1 reel microfilm
and 1 LP record Guide to Collection
Centers of
Southern Struggle
FBI Files on
Montgomery, Albany, St. Augustine, Selma, and Memphis
(AR 1439)
This collection, edited
by historian David J. Garrow, contains memoranda,
newspaper clippings and other material collected or
produced by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
documenting civil rights activities in five Southern
communities.
Size: 21 reels microfilm
Civil Rights
Movement
Scrapbooks
(AR 260)
These scrapbooks,
compiled by librarians at the Birmingham Public
Library, contain newspaper clippings relating to the
Civil Rights Movement. The clippings are arranged in
three subject areas: national civil rights events,
Alabama events, and Mississippi events. The clippings
are arranged chronologically within the subject areas.
Size: 12 volumes
Civil Rights
Movement in Selma
Scrapbooks,
1959-1972
(AR 261)
These scrapbooks,
compiled by librarians at the Birmingham Public
Library, contain newspaper clippings relating to the
civil rights activities in Selma, Alabama, including
the 1965 Selma to Montgomery March.
Size: 2 volumes
Concerned White
Citizens of Alabama
Papers, 1965
(AR 212)
This collection includes
the organization’s constitution, minutes of
meetings, membership list, correspondence, subject
files and newspaper clippings.
Size: 1 box
Congress of
Racial Equality
Papers,
1941-1967
(AR 527)
Size: 49 reels microfilm
Dallas County,
Ala. Sheriff’s Department
Surveillance
Tapes, 1965
(AR 1011)
During the 1965 voter
registration drive in Selma, Alabama, the
sheriff’s department recorded one or more of the
civil rights mass meetings held at Selma churches. The
recording device was discovered by movement
participants but was not removed. This collection
contains nine audio recordings made by the Dallas
County Sheriff’s Department of one or more mass
meetings, a press conference with Malcolm X and a
reporter describing a protest march and mass arrest. In
1988, the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department
loaned the original tapes to the Birmingham Public
Library for copying. The original tapes were returned
to the sheriff’s department after copies were
made.
Size: 9 audio recordings
Dowe, Dan
Documents
Relating to the Integration of the Macon County,
Alabama Public Schools,
1964-1966
(AR 990)
Dan Dowe, a reporter for
the Birmingham News, gathered this collection of court
records, guidelines and other material relating to the
desegregation of public schools in Macon County,
Alabama.
Size: 1 box
Flowers,
Richmond
Scrapbook,
1962-1972
(AR 1203)
Newspaper clippings
compiled by the staff of the Birmingham Public
Library’s Southern History Department on
Flower’s service as Alabama Attorney General.
Size: 1 volume
Flowers, Walter
Papers Relating
to the Integration of the University of Alabama,
1955-1958
(AR 1276)
In 1956, Autherine Lucy
became the first African American to attend the
University of Alabama. In reaction to riots by white
students and others, the university expelled Lucy a few
days after her enrollment. This collection
contains letters written to the Student Government
Association president Walter Flowers regarding school
integration and the Lucy controversy. The collection
also contains newspaper clippings and whole newspapers
reporting the events.
Size: 3 boxes
Folsom, James
Elisha
Scrapbooks,
1945-1968
(AR 690)
These scrapbooks,
compiled by staff of the Birmingham Public
Library’s Southern History Department, contain
newspaper clippings relating to James E. “Big
Jim” Folsom’s two terms as governor of
Alabama and various political campaigns.
Size: 4 volumes